By now many of you know that the third season of The Flash will be Flashpoint story line from the comics. However, the television version of the story will be vastly different from that of the comics. If you’re somewhat familiar with the comic version of the story, you’d know that the actions of the Flash put things into chaos and readers saw very different versions of their favorite super heroes. For example, instead of Bruce Wayne as Batman, it was Thomas (his father) who wore the black rubber and did things very different from his son. Obviously, on the television show, there has yet to be any mention of the Wayne family. This is just one example of the differences between the comic books and the television series.

While the Flashpoint story line was a story about the Flash (Grant Gustin), it had a major impact on everyone else that the Flash knew. And due to the fact that many of these major players don’t exist (yet) on the T.V. show, the story will change a lot, and it’s created quite a challenge for the writers and producers of the show. Their task will be finding a way to tell the story and, at the same time, having the same impact on Barry’s outside world the same way it did in the comics. Luckily, for the audience, the show has done a solid job of connecting the major players on the television show with those who watch the series every week. As the trailer for season three has shown, a lot of the relationships that Barry has established have greatly changed.

One of the major changes is the relationship between Barry and Iris (Candice Patton). At the end of season two, it seemed like the couple had finally come together, but then Barry made the decision to go back in time to save his mother. The end result was Barry and Iris being further apart than they have ever been before. Not only has Barry become distant with Iris, his relationship with Joe (Jesse L. Martin) has become non-existent.

Flashpoint is everything that the cast mentioned while at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. During an interview, Gustin talked about taking on the epic story line,

“We can try to talk about Flashpoint, yeah. I’ll tiptoe around stuff. It’s different. It’s its own thing. When I was cast last… God, it’s been almost three years now, one of the first things I did was watch Flashpoint Paradox, because it was… everyone talks about it. I loved it. But obviously we’re not going to have Batman, we’re not going to have Superman or Wonder Woman, and that’s kind of like… everything that happens in Flashpoint Paradox.”

Even he’s aware of how much of a daunting task it can be. As far as the the producers are concerned, they’re also up for the challenge. Here’s what Aaron and Todd Helbing had to say about adapting a story like Flashpoint for television,

“Aaron Helbing: I mean, we’re really inspired by the comic book, I loved it personally. But there’s certain limitations [on what] we can do just being a TV show. There’s a lot of… I mean, Thomas Wayne, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. So we just try to do what we can and what we feel emotionally feels right for the story. So we try to take pieces that we can from it and tell the best story we can.

Todd Helbing: It’s the same as any moment that’s in the comics books. You loved it when you read it the first time, or the tenth time, or the hundredth time. And then you really think about how you could do that on our show. Like, the reaction you got when you read it for the first time, how can you get the same reaction? Because you can’t do it verbatim every time. So Flashpoint is very similar, we approach it the same way: how do you get that emotional response from people? We might not use the exact same events that happened.”

It’s probably safe to say that adapting a story like Flashpoint into an animated movie is one of these easiest things that could have been done (from a creative standpoint). However, when you add real world elements, it becomes a lot harder. Especially since the show hasn’t established the beloved super heroes that many comic book readers have grown to love and know. They only have a select cast of characters to work with and only one of them has powers.

The hope is that the audience has fallen in love with these people enough to garner the same impact that people like Superman, Wonder Woman, or Aquaman did in the comics and animated film. But if you’ve watched the series thus far and haven’t missed an episode yet, then there’s a good chance you already feel this way about Iris, Joe, Cisco, and Caitlin; even Wally, Jesse and Earth-2 Harrison Wells. With this in mind, Flashpoint might actually work out in the end.

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